Police in London have been accused of excessive force in their efforts to clear out Occupy demonstrators. Protesters stood together last night as officers broke down the doors to their camps. RT's Laura Smith has more on the London based battle between occupiers and officers.

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STUDENT leaders have praised the Scottish Government’s stance on tuition fees after new figures showed the number of people applying to Scottish universities “held steady”.

Ucas figures released today show the number of university applications from Scotland fell 1.5 per cent.

That is the smallest drop in the UK.

The total number of applications from students to study in Scotland rose by 0.2%, compared with a slump of almost 9% in applicants to English universities.

Applications to Scottish universities from international students are up by more than a quarter.

Tuition fees for English universities are due to triple to a maximum of £9,000 this autumn.

However, the SNP administration was elected on a pledge to maintain free university education for Scotland-based students.

Robin Parker, president of the National Union of Students in Scotland, said: “Today’s Ucas figures are a ringing endorsement of the Scottish Government’s correct decision to keep Scotland free of tuition fees and remove any price tag for studying.

“Scottish applications have held up well, particularly when compared to elsewhere in the UK.”

The figures show that the number of university applicants from all parts of the UK has fallen.

In England the number applying to university dropped by 9.9%, whereas in Scotland the fall was by 1.5%.

The total UK figure was down by 8.7% to 462,507 applications, compared with 506,388 at this point last year.

The number of Scottish students applying to study in Scotland has fallen from 38,986 last year to 38,559 in 2012, a drop of 1.1% or 427 applications.

The total number of applications to Scottish institutions has risen by 0.2% to 96,364 this year.

Ucas said the number of non-EU applicants to Scottish universities rose almost 25% this year, with applications from the EU up 6%.

Mr Parker welcomed the Scottish figures but criticised the tuition fees faced by students south of the border.

He said: “With applications in England showing a drop of almost 10%, it’s clear £9,000 fees are putting huge numbers of students off, and cutting off opportunities for people to study, re-skill and get the education that gets them a job.

“This is yet another day when the Liberal Democrat MPs that voted for £9,000 fees in England should hang their heads in shame. Their decision to betray students, by trebling fees to £9,000 when they pledged to abolish them, has not only harmed students in England, it’s also led to a 16% drop in Scottish students applying to study in England too.
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http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/scottish_government_praised_as_university_applicants_hold_steady_1_2086415----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even with Scotland gaining independence, the British Isles will still be the British Isles...
As for Identifying as British is geographically correct.. I'm just as European whether in or out off the EU the same rule applies.

Interesting piece on this topic by SNP MP Pete Wishart

"Firstly, I suppose Britishness is as much about geography as it is about identity and history. Coming from Perth in the northern part of the island of Greater Britain I am as much British as someone from Stockholm is Scandinavian."

"Bloody Sunday" shootings in Derry, Northern Ireland. Although produced by Granada Television as a TV film, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 16 January, a few days before its screening on ITV on 20 January, and then in selected London cinemas from 25 January. The production was written and directed by Paul Greengrass. Though set in Derry city, the film was actually shot in Ballymun in North Dublin. However, some location scenes were shot in Derry City, in Guildhall Square and in Creggan on the actual route of the march of 1972.

There is no alternative base for the UK's nuclear deterrent than its existing sites in Scotland, leaving it with the prospect of having nowhere to go should Scots vote for independence.

That is the conclusion of a detailed study to be published on Monday on what is emerging as a huge question for defence chiefs. They are only now beginning to face the consequences of a possible future Scottish parliament voting to get rid of the Trident nuclear weapons bases at Coulport and Faslane.

Asked during the referendum debate in the Scottish parliament last week whether the government of an independent Scotland would do a deal to keep Trident, the first minister Alex Salmond replied: "It is inconceivable that an independent nation of 5.25m people would tolerate the continued presence of weapons of mass destruction on its soil."

His comments seemed to be directed at senior British defence officials figures who have suggested that they could negotiate a treaty allowing the Trident missiles, warheads, and submarines, to remain in Scotland

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Moving Trident to the US or France would not be viable, because the nuclear non-proliferation treaty would prevent the UK from using existing facilities there and new ones would have to be built.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, has suggested that Scotland would be forced to pay towards the costs of relocating Trident. "These are idle threats," says the report. "Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan found themselves as independent countries with large numbers of nuclear weapons. It is ridiculous to suggest that these three countries should each have paid Russia to build new nuclear silos."

Kate Hudson, chair of CND, said last night: "Trident is at a dead end, strategically and economically. Now we can add 'geographically' to the list too, as Ministry of Defence sources have confirmed CND's analysis: that there 'simply isn't anywhere else' for Trident to go. This detailed report, based on previous government assessments of alternative locations for Trident, comes to the same logical conclusion."

First discovered in 2002, the waterside site—called the Ness of Brodgar ("Brodgar promontory")—lies on Mainland, the largest of Scotland's Orkney Islands (map).

According to recent radiocarbon dating of burned-wood remains, the Ness was first occupied around 3200 B.C. and went on to include up to a hundred buildings within a monumental walled enclosure.

By contrast, the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge date to about 3000 B.C. And it would be roughly another 500 years before the first of the famous stones were set on Salisbury Plain. (Interactive time line: "Stages of Stonehenge.")

First Minister Alex Salmond has told an audience in London that independence for Scotland would create a new 'social union' between the two countries of Scotland and England post-independence -- and be good for both countries. Delivering the Guardian newspaper's annual Hugo Young Lecture the evening before he publishes the Scottish Government's consultation on an independence referendum, the FM said that independence would leave Scotland and the rest of the UK free to work together as equal partners in many areas where values and interests were shared.